Two days ago we’ve offered a list of ten e-readers, and now it’s time to give you ten alternatives to download audiobooks online. Spoken audio texts started to be available in schools, public libraries and music shops since the 1930s. Fifty years later book retailers understood the importance of audiobooks and started to display them on bookshelves. There are many ways to get your hands on audiobooks for free, including torrent indexers or websites that offer them for free. On the other hand, audiobooks are also distributed on CDs, cassette tapes, and in the form of mp3 files. As a matter of fact, 16% of the cassette tape sales were sound books in 2005 in the U.S, while 74% were attributed to the CDs and 9% in downloadable content.
10. Librophile
With Librophile you get access to a simple interface that helps you find audiobooks and eBooks. Besides browsing for books on terms on keywords or genre, you can also listen to chapters online, download whole books, or play a sample. Librophile’s database is mostly a collection of eBooks from LibriVox and Audible.
9. StoryNory
Our next addition in the list of ten alternatives to download audiobooks online is a service focused on offering audiobooks for children. Their database includes classics such as “A Christmas Carol”, “Aesop”, and educational stories such as the history of the bible and more.
8. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg’s goal is to digitize and archive cultural masterpieces in the form of eBooks. They work in cooperation with websites like LibriVox and AudioBooksForFree to create audio books. The search engine is comprehensive and easy to use.
7. Learn Out Loud
On LearnOutLoud you can find a vast database of audiobooks, their collection being comprised of 25.000 audio and video titles, some for free, others for a small fee. For a quick access to the free goodies just click the tab named “Free Stuff” and browse what they’ve got to offer.
6. OpenCulture
OpenCulture is offering services not only for those of you who are in need of eBooks or audiobooks, but also for students. It offers a vast collection of free courses in mp3 format, podcasts with topics such as language lessons, technology, travel, music, science, and much more.
5. Lit2Go
Supported by Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse, Lit2Go offers a large collection of books and poetry audiobooks that you can download for free. Browsing is done by title, author, reading level, or subject. Furthermore, you can view text on the website itself and read along as you listen.
4. PodioBooks
In addition to just listening a story online, on PodioBooks you can find complete books via RSS or iTunes in the form of series. That means you will receive one chapter at a time. However, you can also download directly on your computer, transfer files on CDs or mp3 players.
3. LibriVox
LibriVox is a place where you can find free audio books in the public domain. The site, as seen in the picture above, is driven by volunteers and literature enthusiasts that record books for free in the form of mp3 files and podcasts. You can be part of the team as well if you wish to. Their search engine is easy to use.
2. New Fiction
Number two in our list of alternatives to download audiobooks online is NewFiction, a website where you can find a large database of audio books performed by multiple actors (iSoaps). All you need to do is sign in and get audiobooks or eBooks on your computer, iPod, iPad, or Smartphone.
1. BooksShouldBeFree
Number one in our list is BooksShouldBeFree, a website that offers audiobooks from different genres, including children books, fiction, fantasy, mystery, history, non-fiction, philosophy, and much more. A highlight feature of this portal is that the audiobooks are to be found in different languages. Download them for free in mp3, iPod, or iTunes format.
We hope you enjoyed our list and find it useful.
